The Monroe Doctrine in a Contemporary Perspective [1 ed.] 0367370980, 9780367370985

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The Monroe Doctrine in a

Contemporary Perspective

This book surveys the impact of the Monroe Doctrine on United States relations with Latin America, with a particular focus on the Caribbean Basin, since its proclamation in 1823. It explores the historical role of the Monroe Doctrine as the instrument to foreclose future European colonial adventures in the American hemisphere and to exclude from it any political system(s) deemed to be incompatible with the American political tradition. Modeste examines the elastic interpretations of the Monroe Doctrine to justify American territorial expansion and imperial ambitions, premised on a strategic question – the power controlling the Latin American/Caribbean trade routes and Sea Lines of Communication. Fundamental to the narrative is the linkage of the tenets of the Monroe Doctrine to contemporary local/regional crises where governments have applied extraordinary, extra-constitutional measures to exercise control or achieve political ends, mechanisms of peaceful conflict resolution fail, and subversive elements use unorthodox methods to threaten the integrity of the state. Modeste also traces the transformation of the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral policy declaration to a multilateral compact for the collective defence of the hemisphere. Denneth M. Modeste has served as a Grenada public official, parliamentarian, cabinet minister and Ambassador of Grenada to several countries, as well as a multilateral practitioner of the Organisation of American States. He is a graduate in international studies and international relations from the City College of New York and Cambridge University in England.

Routledge Studies in the History of the Americas

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The Monroe Doctrine in a

Contemporary Perspective

Denneth M. Modeste

First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of Denneth M. Modeste to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Modeste, Denneth M., 1954– author. Title: The Monroe Doctrine in a Contemporary Perspective / Denneth M. Modeste. Description: New York, NY : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. | Series: Routledge Studies in the History of the Americas; Volume 12 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019049138 (print) | LCCN 2019049139 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367370985 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429352669 (ebook) | ISBN 9781000034479 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781000034486 (mobi) | ISBN 9781000034493 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Monroe doctrine. | United States—Foreign relations—Latin America. | Latin America—Foreign relations— United States. | United States—Foreign relations. Classification: LCC JZ1482 .M63 2020 (print) | LCC JZ1482 (ebook) | DDC 327.7308—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049138 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049139 ISBN: 978-0-367-37098-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-35266-9 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC

To the memory of Jane-Ann Modeste

Contents

List of Maps Preface Acknowledgments Introduction

ix

x

xiv

1

1 Europe and the Americas: The Old World and the

New Mission

16

2 The Original Monroe Doctrine

39

3 Expansion of the Monroe Doctrine

48

4 The Monroe Doctrine and the Containment of

Communism

84

5 The Grenada Revolution in the Cold War Context

108

6 Haiti: Taming the Revolutionary Spirit

134

7 Longevity of the Monroe Doctrine

173

Appendix I TREATY Between Austria, Prussia, and Russia (the “Holy Alliance”), Signed at Paris, 26th September 1815 Appendix II The Annual Message from President

James Monroe to the United States Congress,

Containing the “Monroe Doctrine,” December

2nd, 1823 (Extract)

203

205

viii

Contents

Appendix III Letter of Invitation to the OECS from the Governor-General of Grenada Sir Paul Scoon October 24th, 1983 Appendix IV Statement on the Grenada Situation from the OECS Secretariat Appendix V Letter from the Chairman of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States to the United States Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean Appendix VI Letter Requesting U.S. Action Appendix VII Letter from President Reagan to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House Informing the Congress of the Grenada Mission October 25th, 1983 Bibliography Index

208 209 211 212

214 216 225

Maps

0.1 1.1

The Americas. Nineteenth-Century European Empires and U.S.

Continental Expansion.

xvi

18

Preface

This book examines the impact of the Monroe Doctrine on American for­ eign relations and diplomatic practice in relation to the Caribbean Basin since its proclamation on December 2, 1823. Amid competing claims to rights and interests of European powers and the United States to territory on the North American continent, and in the context of widespread polit­ ical agitation in Europe, fuelled primarily by the phenomenon of revo­ lution and the revolutionary ideology, the United States sought, in one bold foreign policy instrument, to challenge the territorial claims of the extra-hemispheric powers and to shield the American hemisphere from their autocratic political systems of governance. In the doctrine which bore his name, President James Monroe declared in his Annual Message to the United States Congress in 1823 that movements by the European powers on any of those interrelated fronts would be interpreted “as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States.” Many succeeding administrations adopted the notion that the doctrine sanctioned or even imposed an obligation to intervene in any state in the hemisphere that showed revolutionary tendencies and that failure to do so would amount to a negation or abdication of American leadership. Essentially, the Americans sought substitution of traditional diplomacy for a new form of international behaviour premised on what justified interference or not in internal disputes. Thus, the United States assumed the right to crush revolutions, by armed intervention if necessary, in the interest of the American political tradition. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the leading powers sought to dissociate themselves from the antique practice of intervention in other states (singularly or jointly contrived) by outside powers in favour of handling international problems by international (primarily diplomatic) methods. Their idea/ideal was at its high-water mark in the launching of the UN system that accorded importance to the principle of sovereign equality of states. This new approach evolved in the context of the liberal world order, exemplified by democratic principles as well as open econo­ mies and markets, under the tutelage/stewardship of the United States and endorsing its values. However, the Soviet Union challenged that

Preface

xi

world order as the United States faced another ideological threat (com­ munism) from the European continent. The Monroe Doctrine facilitated firmer U.S. management of inter-American relations, undergirded by a strategic question – the power controlling the Latin American/Caribbean Sea Lines of Communication. There are two limbs to the purpose of the book: (i) to show the endur­ ing influence of the Monroe Doctrine on the formulation and execution of United States geostrategic policy in the Caribbean Basin; and (ii) to call attention to America’s longstanding challenge to reconcile a conspicu­ ous paradigm of the American political tradition, to which it has under­ pinned its foreign policy and national security, with a political culture in the region that had accentuated autocratic resoluteness over demo­ cratic liberalism. The tools available to the United States as well as their application, in conjunction with the invocation of tenets of the Monroe Doctrine, to advance or defend United States national or geostrategic interests in the Caribbean Basin, are running motifs in the book. To fully fathom the enduring influence of the Monroe Doctrine on inter-American relations from the nineteenth to the twenty-first cen­ tury, it is necessary to relate it to an interconnected progression of local/ internal political struggles between the majority of the populations of the states of the hemisphere for economic security and the minority for physical security, encapsulated in the endeavours of the latter to ensure that undemocratic excesses did not throttle economic pluralism and the scope for private sector growth and development as well as the exer­ cise of civil and political rights. Many political leaders tried to transform their societies more in favour of the majority; however, in due course, their administrations were characterised by repression, monopolisation of power and attempts to perpetuate their rule, thereby creating con­ ditions that American policymakers assessed as posing a threat to the country’s national or geostrategic interests. Accordingly, I have examined persistent internal socio-economic strife and disruptive political feuds in regional states that predate their independence; the efforts of their lead­ ers to consolidate their independence and to exercise their prerogative to change traditional relationships stemming from inequalities and injus­ tices in political and economic relations; as well as attempts by United States policymakers to apply the principles of the Monroe Doctrine to demonstrate that within what they consider to be the strategic preserve of the U.S., regional states do not enjoy an unfettered right to chart a politi­ cal course or to form relationships/alliances that are entirely independent of its geostrategic concerns. Two cases/events in this narrative perspective capture or highlight the local political dynamics that bore a relationship to the tenets of the Mon­ roe Doctrine: the antagonistic relationship between the United States and Grenada (1979–83) as well as Haiti (2000–04). Political discourses in those countries tended to be framed in terms of personalities. The

xii

Preface

dominant personalities during the periods under review were Eric Gairy and Maurice Bishop in Grenada and Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. In the context of the struggle to exercise national independence and selfdetermination in the post-colonial era in the twentieth century, they defined their societies as inherently unjust and held the privileged minor­ ity responsible and accountable for the status and welfare of the dispos­ sessed majority, casting themselves to their people as agents of change. Their political platforms postulated that the persistence of poverty and the perpetuation of unequal relationships, particularly in the economic and social spheres, posed a serious threat to the stability, peace and pros­ perity of their societies. The political, economic, social and cultural prob­ lems were deemed to require resolute action, most notably, removal of historical prejudices, to assure to their states their independent develop­ ment, spearheaded by ‘authentic’ representatives of the people. The ballot box opened pathways to the corridors of power for Gairy and Aristide; however, Gairy’s rule appeared to have been a limited adap­ tation of Françios Duvalier’s mode of governance in the 1970s; Maurice Bishop and his cohorts employed armed force to topple Gairy from power in 1979 and over four and a half years violated and forcefully suppressed every right they claimed vociferously during their struggles against Gairy, in their endeavours to consolidate another ‘permanent’ far-left dicta­ torship in the Caribbean Basin. Aristide also duplicated “Papa Doc’s” template of governance just over two decades later. Gairy and Aristide faced regionally/internationally constituted commissions of inquiry into human rights violations during their rule (The Duffus Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights in Grenada, 1974, and the OAS Commis­ sion of Inquiry into the Events of December 17, 2001 in Haiti). Both were undermined by popular revolts led by the same constellation of forces and interests within their states: Gairy faced an alliance of opposi­ tion political parties and civil society organisations, the latter under the nomenclature – the Committee of Twenty-two; Aristide faced a similar alliance of political organisations and an assemblage of approximately 184 civil society groups, dubbed the Group of 184. The United States assessed their rule as a major contributing factor to the political tumult that gripped both states. My approach in this exercise, especially the contemporary period, has been to use as many primary sources as possible. Apart from the classic works on the Monroe Doctrine, I have relied heavily on U.S. govern­ ment publications as well as official and unofficial statements of Ameri­ can policymakers, especially to discern their perception of the threat of regional events to American national security. With regard to Grenada, the collection of documents found on the island during the U.S. interven­ tion in 1983 has been invaluable; it has provided substantial insight into the extent of the extra-hemispheric involvement in the region and the political agenda of the People’s Revolutionary Government. My account

Preface

xiii

of the events in Haiti is based, substantially, on my accumulated experi­ ences in the country as a diplomat/multilateral practitioner. I served as the Ambassador of Grenada to the United States and the Organization of American States (OAS) when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a military coup d’état in 1991. Over the ensuing 16 years (1991–2007), I was involved in the many initiatives of the United States, the OAS and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to settle Haiti’s disturbingly fre­ quent and intermittent bouts of political instability. During ten of those years, I represented the Organization of American States in Haiti in dif­ ferent capacities.

Acknowledgments

Many academics have supported me with this project. I am exceedingly grateful to Professor George Schwab (City University of New York) who introduced me to the Monroe Doctrine when I searched for clues to the United States mission in Grenada in 1983. Professor David Brading (St. Edmunds, Cambridge), has had a strong influence on my research, espe­ cially the first three chapters; I am deeply appreciative of his guidance and encouragement throughout my sojourn at Cambridge University, England. I am particularly indebted to the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, whose award of the Barclays Cambridge Scholarship facilitated my work at Cambridge University. I am deeply grateful for the advice I received on this project from Dr. J. A. Thompson (St. Catherine, Cam­ bridge) and Sir Christopher Greenwood (Magdalene, Cambridge). My career in the field of diplomacy and international relations has given me enormous insight into the difficulties of translating the key con­ cepts in the field from theory to practice as well as a unique opportunity to more fully understand the nature and history of Inter-American rela­ tions. Accordingly, I salute Sir Nicholas Brathwaite, Prime Minister of Grenada (1990–95), for affording me the opportunity to serve as the country’s Ambassador to the United States, Mexico and Indonesia as well as the Organisation of American States, during his term of office. I am eternally grateful to Wim Udenhout, former Ambassador of Suriname to the United States and the OAS, for triggering the initiative that led to my assignment as the Country Representative of the OAS in Haiti (1995–2001). I extend deep appreciation to Cesar Gaviria, former Presi­ dent of Colombia and later Secretary General of the OAS, for that initial appointment and for later assigning me to the country as the deputy, and subsequently, Head of the OAS Special Mission for Strengthening Democracy in Haiti, as well as his special representative to the country. I owe a debt of gratitude to Luigi Einaudi, former Ambassador of the United States to the OAS and subsequently Assistant Secretary General and Interim Secretary General of the organisation, for his inestimable support throughout my assignments in the country. I express my sin­ cere thanks to former President of Costa Rica Miguel Angel Rodriguez,

Acknowledgments

xv

who served briefly as Secretary General of the OAS, for his invaluable assistance. I acknowledge with profound thanks, permission from The Ameri­ can Enterprise Institute to use extracts from Ambassador Jeane J. Kirk­ patrick’s book, Dictatorships and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics, an American Enterprise Institute/Simon and Schuster Publication, 1982. Professor John Norton Moore generously consented to my use of three appendices from his work: Law and the Grenada Mission, published by the Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia School of Law, 1984. I express sincere thanks to Crisis Maga­ zine for permission to quote from an in-depth essay that it published on April 1, 1984 by Carl Gershman, titled: “Documentation: Soviet Power in Central America and the Caribbean-The Growing Threat to American Security.” I also acknowledge, with deep appreciation, permission from The Nation Publishing Company Limited of Barbados to use extracts from “The Bishop Killers,” a special report which was published by the company on December 10, 1986. I am grateful to Ian Randle Publishers for permission to reprint excerpts from my paper titled: “OAS Efforts to Reinforce Democracy in Haiti Through Dialogue,” in Governance, Conflict Analysis and Conflict Resolution, edited by Cedric H. Grant and R. Mark Kirton and published by Ian Randle Publishers, 2007. Finally, I offer a special expression of gratitude to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for permission to reproduce a number of excerpts from PROMISED LAND, CRUSADER STATE, by Walter A. McDougall, Copyright © 1997 by Walter A. McDougall.

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